Photos and Text by Banning Eyre

If you love live music, especially in the warm open air, there is nothing like New York City in the summer.  Weekend afternoons and evenings offer an amazing range of free concerts at an ever expanding number of outdoor venues.  Top of the list are the large stages at Central Park Summerstage in Manhattan, and Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.  Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors concert series is also a highlight.  The BAM Metrotech stage in downtown Brooklyn offers an impressive series of free, noontime concerts.  And then, there are smaller, less heralded venues, such as the 6^th Street and Avenue B public garden in the East Village.  Because these events happen during the prime touring season for African and African diaspora bands, many of these concerts are right up Afropop Worldwide’s alley. 

This is a photo essay showing highlights from twelve of the shows we saw during the summer of 2006.  It was a spectacular season.  The debut of Algerian Amazight (Berber) singer Takfarinas was certainly a highlight.  Watch for Afropop Worldwide’s interview with Takfarinas, coming soon.  He put on a terrific, high-energy show that brought out a near fanatical crowd.  Chris Berry and Panjea opened that show with Zimbabwe laced funk.  Hakim, of Egypt, also slayed.  He has to be one of the most engaging stage performers of our time.  The parade of poses and facial expressions is dazzling in itself, and what a voice!  For sheer spectacle, it would be hard to top the program Cheb I Sabbah of Algeria put on.  Riffat Sultana, a Pakistani singer from one of the great classical music families, opened with a sublime set of Sufi and ghazal songs, and then her ensemble eventually joined the constantly changing stage show Cheb I Sabbah orchestrated, including three different dance acts, and a surprise cameo by Moroccan gnawa maestro Hassan Hakmoun.  These were all Summerstage shows.  

At Celebrate Brooklyn, Angelique Kidjo headlined a night dedicated to the music of South Africa, with troubadour Vusi Mahlasela and rapper Zola also on the bill.  The evening was promoted as a tribute to the late Brenda Fassie.  That angle got a bit lost in the dazzle, but Zola’s South African hip hop troupe, riding high on his music for the Oscar Award winning film Tsotsi, was sensational, and Angelique easily held her own as the show’s inimitable star.  Senegalese rappers Daara J kicked off a wide ranging show at Summerstage, with Congotronics standard bearers Konono No1 making the most of a sutry afternoon, and Mexican rockers Maldita Vecindad inspiring mosh pit action rarely seen at the venue.  We eagerly await new material from Daara J, but their stage dynamics never fail to impress. 

The Refugee Allstars of Sierra Leone play a warm, folksy blend of reggae, palm wine, and gumbe.  The music is surprisingly uplifting and sunny considering this group’s horrific history.  As the film by the same name documents heart-stoppingly, this group was formed in a refugee camp in Guinea.  In just a few years, that film has rocketed them to world music stardom, an astounding transformation.  In Central Park, the band played through sunlight, and then as darkness fell, the film screened.  Though a light rain fell now and then, no one left.  Afterwards, the band returned to the stage in marching, gumbe mode, to an overwhelming reception.  This band’s story and vibe are extremely powerful.  They’re a little green on the big stage, but they catch up fast, and one hopes that their creativity will survive good fortune. 

There was plenty of nightclub action in New York this summer, of course.  Just a taste of that here with a talented, emerging artist from Cape Verde, Sara Tavares, at SOB’s, and the one and only Baaba Maal of Senegal with an amended version of his band Dande Lenol at Irving Plaza.  Baaba never disappoints, and it was a treat for locals to see our friend Yacouba Sissoko taking the role of kora player in the band.  But the West African star most on his game this summer for us is Salif Keita.  Salif did two New York shows to promote his new album, Mbemba, continuing in the acoustic vein he has established in recent years.  With Ousmane Kouyate back on guitar, the band sounded better than ever.  Salif’s sold out show at the Apollo Theatre was for this reviewer/photographer the show of the summer.  Absolutely incandescent!   

Closer to home, California songwriter Markus James (a denizen of the Malian desert) staged two cool, bluesy shows at Lincoln Center and the Bowery Poetry Club.  He used New York based singer guitarist Abdoulaye Alhassane for those shows, and then sat in with Abdoulaye’s Sahara Band at their weekly Saturday night jam at St. Nick’s Pub.  That same weekend, The Glamour Boys, featuring yours truly on guitar, played adaptations of Shona mbira music from Zimbabwe at the 6^th St/Avenue B garden.  Finally, the new local group we are most excited about, Mandingo Ambassadors, played a number of small club shows this summer.  Led by veteran Guinean guitarist Mamady Kouyate, and fronted by the legendary Émile Benny Soumah of Balla et Ses Balladins, this band delivers the persuasive sound of Conakry in its 1970s Manding pop music heyday.  Extraordinary. 

For all that, there were many worthy African shows we missed or did not photograph.  It just doesn’t end in the New York summer.  If you’ve never experienced it, start planning your 2007 trip now.  Meanwhile, these images from this remarkable season…